A trip to the dump.

[Jim Bow]

Volunteered (wife made me) to go to a friend’s home in Seattle and haul away her landscaping debris. They sure throw stuff away up there in the Emerald City.

Here we have a complete balloon tired tricycle.
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Here we have a Craftsman 3 piece suite: tablesaw, jointer, and drill press. Lots of YouTubes on how to restore these:
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A few bikes:
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[robm]

And salvaging is prohibited. We really don't get it, do we?

[Nicholas Carey]

I'm in a neighborhood Facebook group loaded with Karens who titter about homeless guys who have Stuff That Homeless People Should Not Possess (tm), and how it must be stolen. In particular bicycles.

They don't grok that people in Seattle (1) bin ridiculous stuff all the time, and (2) might have owned stuff before becoming homeless.

Facebook's "block" feature is, like the WBF "ignore", highly useful.

[gypsie]

I dropped some stuff at the dump recently and there was a you-beaut pair of forge tongs right there on the ground.
I picked them up and the dump guy told me to drop them.

Then he picked them up.
Once it hits the ground its theirs.

They collect useful stuff and you can buy it at their compound near the exit for very cheap. I suspect the money goes to their Christmas party, which is fine by me.

[skuthorp]

"I'm in a neighborhood Facebook group loaded with Karens who titter about homeless guys who have Stuff That Homeless People Should Not Possess (tm), and how it must be stolen. In particular bicycles."
Probably one of the bikes they threw out.

Some dumps have shops, ours doesn't. But I have asked and been told to take it a few times.
A total waste of resources, just another step along the road to disaster for us as the western sub-group of our species. My first bike was 75% salvaged from a local tip. Otherwise we could not have afforded one. Took me to school and back, did a paper round, and a pharmacists messenger delivering prescriptions. Took me away for weekends and occasional weeks, even on an old fixed wheel you can cover a lot of ground.

[Lugs]

... and if you go to the right tip at night, the cat shooting is excellent.

[Hallam]

... and if you go to the right tip at night, the cat shooting is excellent.

...look at moi look at moi....... I shoot cats! funny ha ha...... what?? ........ you don't get the joke?

[Lugs]

...look at moi look at moi....... I shoot cats! funny ha ha...... what?? ........ you don't get the joke?

Again, you make assumptions that the data doesn't support.

I've seen someone shooting feral cats at a tip at night. Lots of cats eyes crawling over the rubbish.

You, though, turn the data into an insult. What's wrong with you? Stick with facts.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

They are certifiably nuts! NOBVODY throws away a drill press. When I was a kid we used to walk the alleys to and from school looking for wheels we could use on a soapbox derby-sorta-thing (not he kind they rrace at Akron).

[Rigadog]

How do you know they are feral?

[TerryLL]

And salvaging is prohibited. We really don't get it, do we?

The dumps hereabouts all have a small area set aside for people to leave useful stuff where salvaging is permitted.

[L.W. Baxter]

The dumps hereabouts all have a small area set aside for people to leave useful stuff where salvaging is permitted.

in the older residential neighborhoods around here you don't even go to the dump. just put it out by the curb. gone in 60 seconds.

can't be done in the newer hoods, of course. the wrath of the hoa queen.

[Garret]

For sure a lot of good stuff gets tossed at the dump. At least here, the metal gets recycled - though of course reused would be much better. Dumps/transfer stations generally don't allow picking for 2 reasons: 1) the guys working there have first dibs & 2) liability. In our litigious society, some guy who gets cut by something sharp in the bin will sue.

When you get close to a lot of the stuff being dumped, it really isn't as good as you might think. The bikes are cheap Walmart crap that literally cost more to fix than to replace, most of the lawnmowers are shot (though not all!), car wheels are bent, etc. The biggest problem is not what gets tossed, it's that so much cheap junk is made that isn't worth fixing (or possible to fix) instead of making items that can be repaired & reused.

All our transfer stations used to have "Reuse Rooms" where people could leave reusable stuff & others could grab it. When we moved, we took a bunch of stuff there & I saw people carrying something I'd dropped off out as I brought more stuff in. They got dropped because of jerks. An employee got hepatitis from a bunch of used needles someone left, others left live ammo, and hid trash in containers, etc. to save a couple of bucks. The standard "some jerk wrecks it for everyone" thing.

[L.W. Baxter]

i got in a yelling match with a guy on a skip loader at the local recycler for taking a photograph of my own metal.

by law--which i should not have obeyed--when i sold our place in the burbs i removed and disabled the non-compliant but very well made woodstove from the shop. there was a form to fill out and mail in, but i decided to photograph the stove at the recyclers with a big hole cut in it just for my records.

after the fact, i realized that the rule was completely unenforced. should have brought that stove with me when we moved.

anyway, i told the guy to get off his loader if he wanted to talk like that.

[Rich Jones]

Our dump has a rather uninteresting metal pile. By the time things get there, it is truly junk. I very rarely see anyone salvaging, which is allowed. The dump does have a recycle shed where you drop off stuff that you no longer need but is still in good shape. That has worked out quite well.

[Captain Lint]

And salvaging is prohibited. We really don't get it, do we?

Thats so the staff at the landfill get first dibs.

I have grabbed stuff off the metal pile at the local " dump' numerous times and no one ever says boo. Last year I got a perfectly working and rideable 5 speed schwinn cruising bike. Just needed air in the tires. Also salvaged several gallon cans of perfectly good latex paint - most of them full and fairly normal tints.

[Jack Loudon]

In Seattle, homeowners are required to have garbage pickup service but we are a few blocks outside of the city limits, so have elected to forego this. With composting and recycling, we generate very little actual garbage so I fill the truck and drive to the transfer station maybe 3 times a year with a lot of recyclables and a little garbage.

No more worries about forgetting to set the bins out on the street. I feel smug when I see the neighbors running out half dressed to roll their cans out just ahead of the garbage truck.

My best dump find, years ago on Whidbey Island, was a plywood skiff with the transom rotted out. I shortened the boat ahead of the rotted area and installed a new transom, all done quick n dirty with CDX ply and construction adhesive. I needed a 'disposable' dinghy to leave on the beach and get to my moored boat. It did the job and when it was finally used up, it made a nice beach fire.

Jack

[LeeG]

I do a dump run every two to three weeks. Between shop trash, a big household and neighbors bagged excess as his dump Toyota is in the shop it’s a big load. I’m the Trash Man, yeahhhhh I’m the Trash Mannn.

[White River]

Snagged two mason type scaffold frames with wheels out of our local salvage yard a few years ago. Threw them on the ladder rack of my truck and went back through the scales a basically traded pound for pound the scrap sheet steel I had dropped off.

[elf]

My local FB Buy Nothing group has the head of the Swap Shop on it. Every other day she posts stuff from the Swap Shop, nice photos, all organized by type of item, on the page. Recently one had to have a dump sticker to get to the Swap Shop, but once the town hired her to deal with it, the requirement was eliminated. I don't know how effective her efforts are, but it's really great that the town is behind them.

One of the saddest things about my Buy Nothing group, however, is that people who are cleaning out their family homes, now that their parents have passed on, are putting amazing things on it. The other day I saw two sets of twin beds, complete with box spring, mattress, head and foot boards, obviously from the kids' bedrooms which hadn't been used in many months. All kinds of well built post-war dressers, sideboards etc. are showing up, as people try to pass on quality furniture from the homes they would really rather not have to sell, but can't upend their lives to move into. Then I go over to the pages of the sections of town where those people grew up and see them wishing they still lived here, reminiscing about their childhoods, telling stories. recalling high jinks.

There are plenty of people in town who are struggling to get an apartment ready to move in. They're all on the groups too, and often they post photos of where they put the things the donors posted and how much they appreciate being able to finally get their kids' clothing off the floor and into drawers, how much their kids are sooo happy to have a real bed.

Then I hear people complaining about FaceBook.

[Ted Hoppe]

Few ever think about this but... There is a liability issue if you take things from the dump placing some burden on the dump and county. Once it arrives at the dump, the government owns the materials. There is no implied wavier to offset that. Taking such items is actually theft.

[LeeG]

A few years ago before the dump had to be run better a lot of stuff would go to the pit to be buried and it looked amazing. Like all the yard sales poured into one pile. After looking at all the plastic crap I said to my daughter “It makes me want to go Walmart to get more crap to drop here in a year.”.
Isn’t burying plastic a kind of carbon sequestration?

[Garret]

Few ever think about this but... There is a liability issue if you take things from the dump placing some burden on the dump and county. Once it arrives at the dump, the government owns the materials. There is no implied wavier to offset that. Taking such items is actually theft.

That's why it pays to be friendly with the guys who run it...

[David W Pratt]

...look at moi look at moi....... I shoot cats! funny ha ha...... what?? ........ you don't get the joke?

Feral cats in Australia are an invasive species that kills about 2,000,000,000 animals there annually and is pushing about 100 species to the brink of extinction.

[Jack Loudon]

Isn’t burying plastic a kind of carbon sequestration?

Like putting the oil back in the ground, albeit a more polymerized version. We're a selfless lot, always giving back.

[Lugs]

How do you know they are feral?

No houses for miles - it was a dump in the countryside... near Tamworth NSW. So, unless there was a mad cat woman (a mate was dating one of those, but broke up with her because of the pussy smell in her house).... taking her cats for exercise at the dump, I think its a 100% certainty they were feral.

Feral cats in Australia are an invasive species that kills about 2,000,000,000 animals there annually and is pushing about 100 species to the brink of extinction.

Indeed. Them and foxes. My daughter just found fox scats in her well-fenced yard, which is a worry re her pet ducks

[gypsie]

Feral cats in Australia are an invasive species that kills about 2,000,000,000 animals there annually and is pushing about 100 species to the brink of extinction.

Prezactly.
Any cat that's out and about is correctly considered feral and fair game. The have no place on this island.

[Wine47]

I feed and water feral cats - I buy 88 lbs of cat food at a time. If I can capture them I get them neutered - just spent $990 to get a very sweet cat spayed, chipped. What the F##k is wrong with you?

[Hallam]

Feral cats in Australia are an invasive species that kills about 2,000,000,000 animals there annually and is pushing about 100 species to the brink of extinction.

I’m aware of the feral cat problem and pigs and the wild horses in the high country and the buffalo up north and now in recent years the explosion of feral deer population. Add to this the reality that not one animal in Australia before European invasion was cloven hoofed so we can add to the environmental destruction every farm that stocks sheep and cattle! Oh and don’t forget the rabbits and cane toads! And the humans of European mindset of the time……… So from the early days of European settlement the top soil structure that was once soft has been compacted and essentially stuffed since about the 1860’s, the river banks eroded and collapsed adding to once navigable rivers, estuaries and bays silting up and on and on………..we have never seen nor experienced under foot what this land was!

As a kid I would look across the fenced paddocks of my home area and wish I could experience the land as it was before fences, cows, sheep and tree clearing. I also wished the special meeting place down the back paddock where the local tribe used to have their corrobbories and where we found greenstone axe heads and other artefacts was still their place to live and dance. I have lamented the tragic destruction and loss as a 12 year old and ever since.

Coincidently, as I type this on my iPhone I’m out on my morning walk and sitting in the middle of a shell midden with the odd bluestone cutting stone scattered about on a limestone outcrop surrounded by the sand dunes of Bass Strait coast. Once you have learned to look, you see it everywhere. The places were their kids played and had their plentiful seasonal food, where they cut the bark off the eucalyptus trees for a shallow dish they placed their babies in or the larger scar tree that gifted its bark for a canoe. The shell middens up and down the coast and exposed as the sand shifts on the bayside beaches. Grinding stones used for the once plentiful yams for bread making and the petroglyphs that are scattered about the north and west coast of Tasmania…..always left alone and undisturbed as I find them. I wasn’t even looking for yet kept coming across them on various bush walks. Still do like this morning and it’s always a sacred place where silence seems to be the best response.

[Lugs]

I feed and water feral cats - I buy 88 lbs of cat food at a time. If I can capture them I get the neutered - just spent $990 to get a very sweet cat spayed, chipped. What the F##k is wrong with you?

Good on you. Different circumstances in Australia. From the interwebs

Feral cats threaten the survival of over 100 native species in Australia. They have caused the extinction of some ground-dwelling birds and small to medium-sized mammals. They are a major cause of decline for many land-based endangered animals such as the bilby, bandicoot, bettong and numbat. Many native animals are struggling to survive so reducing the number killed by this introduced predator will allow their populations to grow.
Feral cats can carry infectious diseases which can be transmitted to native animals, domestic livestock and humans.

Different again in Thailand. We get feral cats through the pub all the time... but they are virtually just roaming semi-tame cats. The council there has a different view... they poison them. We had to deal with 6 dead feral cats in the space of a month or so a while back. I take no action either for or against them in Thailand....

[Larks]

I’m aware of the feral cat problem and pigs and the wild horses in the high country and the buffalo up north and now in recent years the explosion of feral deer population. Add to this the reality that not one animal in Australia before European invasion was cloven hoofed so we can add to the environmental destruction every farm that stocks sheep and cattle! Oh and don’t forget the rabbits and cane toads! So from the early days of European settlement the top soil structure that was once soft has been compacted and essentially stuffed since about the 1860’s, the river banks eroded and collapsed adding to once navigable rivers, estuaries and bays silting up and on and on………..

As a kid I would look across the fenced paddocks of my home area and wish I could experience the land as it was before fences, cows, sheep and tree clearing. I also wished the special meeting place down the back paddock where the local tribe used to have their corrobbories and where we found greenstone axe heads and other artefacts was still their place to live and dance. I have lamented the tragic destruction and loss as a 12 year old and ever since.

I hear you Hallam but the sad fact is that those days are gone and we have no choice but to live with reality and in the time that we exist.

Lamenting the past is a fine thing but it shouldn’t get in the way of improving the future. If thinning the numbers of feral or wandering cats and other feral animals offers one small step towards rectifying the mistakes of the past and improving the prospects of native wildlife for the future I’m all for it.


In regards to the wastage at the tip/dump - I wonder why every tip in the western world doesn’t have a “tip shop” - a recycle shop. In Canberra (Australia) each tip has a terrific setup called “The Green shed” and they are incredibly popular and successful, I know people who make it a regular weekend outing to take their kids for a wander through and a coffee. https://thegreenshed.net.au

[Jack Loudon]

I have semi-tame cats regularly coming into my yard and up the steps to the deck, acting like they live here (I have no pets of my own). I ignore them and sometimes half-heartedly chase them off, never feeding or petting them because I don't want them to adopt me. Then I got a letter from the City, stating I had to license and neuter 'my' cats or face a stiff fine. I can see how someone driving by and seeing a cat or two regally surveying the street from our lawn would assume they're my cats. I replied to the City with the facts, and haven't heard back. I guess stray cats are not wanted in Seattle.

[gypsie]

I feed and water feral cats - I buy 88 lbs of cat food at a time. If I can capture them I get them neutered - just spent $990 to get a very sweet cat spayed, chipped. What the F##k is wrong with you?

Killing feral cats verses the extinction of scores of species...?
Mate, what's wrong with you?

Chipping doesn't stop cats from killing.

[Hallam]

I feed and water feral cats - I buy 88 lbs of cat food at a time. If I can capture them I get them neutered - just spent $990 to get a very sweet cat spayed, chipped. What the F##k is wrong with you?

Easy on we are talking different continents here. In the USA fair enough but in Australia then every cat is an environmental catastrophe on 4 legs! CATastophry in that none of our little bandicoots, bilbies and tiny marsupials evolved with the defensive strategies needed to survive as a species against the onslaught of the cars predatory instincts. It’s a slaughterhouse and every cat outdoors after dark should be put away in a way that avoids unnecessary cruelty. Likewise for every feral animal before it’s too late. In many ways it’s already way too late.

my original comment in reply to Ian ( Lugs ) was not about cats but about Ian’s way of creating attention seeking posts that often lead to conflict……… as is drifting towards in this exchange. You see, Ian and I are having a bit of a limited ongoing exchange ate the moment. I know he is best ignored but….. well I sometimes feel the need, rightly or wrongly for a bit of push back so I give out a bit of what he serves up. Every now and then I see signs of improvement. Then it goes south and I attempt to begin with some tact but the response is as predictable as the weather these days. The time is fast approaching for me to ignore his trolling again. That’s just my observation high and mighty as it might seem but as the saying goes, it is what it is.

I’ve made my point I think.
niw about rubbish dumps and skips etc I built my mud brick home out of other peoples throw away timber and bricks etc. and am now applying the same scavenger mentality to the boat. The floor is from spotted gum 19 mm lining boards reclaimed last minute from a slip outside a local restaurant being re furnished. The several nice long planks of unobtainable NZ Kauri I was saving for the fit out have been gifted to my son who is restoring a double diagonal Kauri Alden sloop. His is the more worthy cause for that valuable timber that I picked up from a roadside rubbish collection waiting for the council truck to drive by. I have a stack of ironbark and jarra obtained in a similar fashion.

The spotted gum is the floor in the cabin and the jarra is now the cockpit floor:

[elf]

I feed and water feral cats - I buy 88 lbs of cat food at a time. If I can capture them I get them neutered - just spent $990 to get a very sweet cat spayed, chipped. What the F##k is wrong with you?

You need a pet rescue place in your town. Around here the local cat rescue has trapped and neutered so many feral cat communities that only one is left out on the base and they have to import cats from Florida and Texas to supply the people who want to adopt. Start an organization, get a proper facility built, ally it with a good vet, run some great fund raisers and relieve yourself of doing it all on your own. You'll have a lot more fun and the animals will be better off.